“If you think about it…everybody else owns our identity and different data sets about us…from your employer…to your bank, to Facebook, to Google, to any service that you have a username and password for that stands as your identity…if any of the personal data that you have with them is breached, you don’t have any control over it because they become the gatekeepers of it. The idea with ShoCard is to invert that,” says Armin Ebrahimi.

As it stands today, there are four ways to authenticate yourself with different financial services, none of which are very secure or simple. In addition, every time you open an account with a different financial institution, you are required to go through the process of re-entering all of your personal information; this poses a security threat to you, is costly for the financial institution, and is time-consuming for everyone involved.

ShoCard is working to integrate blockchain and mobile technologies to invert the ownership of identity, which will eliminate these issues by allowing individuals to maintain control over their data. Rather than creating a new username and password for each account, users will be able to have their identity verified on the blockchain. This means that once a bank has identified and established a relationship with a customer, they can create and share that certification with other banks on the blockchain.

Interest in ShoCard is increasing, and they are already doing pilots with a few financial institutions in the US. In addition, they recently launched a project with the European-based multinational credit reporting industry, Creditinfo. Tune in to learn more.